#bergen_county

"Yeah." Adam says. "Ok. Sorry, man. My bad. See ya, Nab." He turns to leave, walking away.

"Adam.. I ithink this maybe just a..."

Olgar walks along with Adam "Adam... hold up. The reason you're a bully, even if you may not realize it... is because you should know I'm NOT going to hit you or stomp you and I'll take a lot of shit from you because of something called a code of Dagda. It means trolls don't abuse their strength. Though there are variants on it..and I don't advice trying to get troll to cross that line. LEt's put it this way, some girl at school is five 2... she slaps this boy, punches him trhe gut... he's big.. he takes it.... but he doesn't dare hit back, push back... or else HE will be going to the principal's office... which one is the bully?"

"I am. Got it. Sorry, man."

"Are you really, or you just saying that to save face or better yet shut me up? I'm not too offended by you staring at me like I'm a freakshow durring all that. That's what the picture joke was for...and you took a shot... you always pick on those with birth defects or am I lucky?"

"Dunno."

"Yeah you do." Olgar grins, wolf teeth showing, "but it doesn't matter waht I say, you're going to think I'm giving you crap when actually all I'm doing is correcting the slander you shot at me... and trying to help you. WHat you're hearing is 'you'ree useless' .. or 'You're not good enough' which is... odd, given that however you might feel about it, and maybe my delivery did need work, my comment about you working with the chief was a recognition that you were impressing folks. You're not useless Adam. Chief wouldn't let you help out or asked you over otherwise. "

He can't help it; he tries to suppress a disdainful snort, but it escapes anyway. He coughs, to cover it?

That actually get a bigger smile "Hey now there's honesty. Sort of. You don't believe me. Your loss... not mine and it is your right. But what you got is the nameless squib on page 13 problem"

Adam stares at the ground; he stopped moving when Olgar started walking with him.

"See, every one wnats to be Harry Potter, the hero.. or Hermonie... the heroine... or maybe Ron... the best friend/side kick who gets a girl... hell, they'd even stand being 'that Hufflepuff who at least gets to be magical and go to classes'" Olgar says "But no one, no one wants to be one of the squibs. The ones who can't do magic... who are on the outside of the wizarding world... and unable to ever really be a part of it but they can sure SEE it... they can touch it..and it can touch them. Those guys? Those are the ones wizards barely notice, and when they do notice? It's just pity. No one wants to be pitied. Not even big ugly guys. You want ot be the hero, Adam, so you cast others as villains.. cuz deep down, you might just fear you're a squib. Before you get riled, you're not a squib. Analogies only work so far... but it's okay not to be instantly loved. Trust me. I came here? I got a lot of what I thought was noses turned up at me.. "

Just a faint flicker, something other than 'sullen teen finely aged'.

"I was ugly, and I was unseelie... in a seelie lodge that held one of the hottest looking women I ever knew. Now the Chief didn't trust unseelie, and Frank sure didn't... so they had their guard up. Oh I wore the cross well... they sucked. They didn't 'get me'... they were prejudiced... I was pretty caught up in my own storyline and happy to cast them as the antaganoists... .. you know, Frank does stroke his beard sometimes and if that isn't villain LOOKING I don't know what is... "

A grudging look of half-agreement....

"But he wasnt' 'the villain' and I sure wasn't the bad ass 'anti hero' I thought I was either. And 9 out out of 10 unseelie the Chief met were probably out to kill her. at the time.. so yeah, some biases... but no less than me. I was so used to a life of being juged for my face and court I did the same thing... I figured ANY time someone had a problem with me it HAD to be because they were bigots. I looked for evil so I found evil... when in fact, sometimes I was just being a .... well... pick your preferred term. "

"Jerk." Oh, there it is.

"Yeah, I was probably worse than that... It was comfortable pretending it wasn't on me at all. Not any of it. Not even ten percent... fortunately said hot chick wouldn't put up with my crap... informed me I had my good points and she believed I couold be BETTER... and ... yeah, maybe to impress her, I got a bit better, but ultimately I did it for myself. I could either live live as a victim by my choosing, or I could ... well... be a better me. I'll let you know if I ever get to be the guy my wife sees... but in the mean time? A little bit better each day. I can't improve my looks, but I can walk the walk. So I take my steps, stumble, get up and keep on walking. I didn't want to be a nameless squib either. Being Draco in leather pants is better than being a nobody... but I learned to stop worrying about where I stood in other people's stories.. mostly . I still give a shit what my loveed ones think, of course. "

A shrug.

"I'm boring you, I can tell... frankly, this is why folks feed me beers, to shut me up. Dagmar likes you, she likes you enough that she's not going to think you're any less a man for taking a joke or a tease. Hell, you're the guy who helped fight a nightmare, who tried to ujnderstand a lonely chimera but at the same time not let her do anything that would hurt some one, and who knows how to hang at parties with a satyr. It's stuff like that that shows me you got a pair.. .not taking em out and asking to compare sizes with what's connected." He grunts "You're all right... took me a long time to win the Chief and Frank over... but once I won myself over? It got a little easier. You? I suspect will beat my time. Hope to see more of you, Adam. I think you may yet do cool things."

"Later"

"Hey, how do you know all this? 'Bout what I done?"

"Because I was you once" Olgar says "Only not as young orlando bloom with auburn hair'.. also? I got connections. Nab was estatic you let her back and she understands better. The story of the nightmare chimera? That's my jam ..but also when word did get out, folks were talking about how brave you were in a fight. And Zane ? Brother if you didn't want him to talk about his friends you should have told him. I don't know every detail about you.. not my biz, but I know enough about you to know what you do.. and what you do is a large part of who you are. So far? Deeds are your strong point."

Oh, he's wary; like a young tom might watch with suspicion, but interest. "Zane's an ok guy."

"He's a good kid... sometimes he faces some preconcieved notion for what he is... a satyr. Folks think he's a horn dog... and he is in part, but that's not all he is, and it's sure not all he does." Olgar waves as he's walking back to the lodge.

"Yeah." Adam turns and heads home.

Nabuni joins Adam's shoulder "Adam, he didn't threaten you or anything did He? I .. may have lost my temper with him at first..."

And Olgar is gone.

"You can't fight my fights for me, Nab. I don't want that, ok?"

"Well I did tell YOU to tell him so in a way you..." Sheepishly she hangs her little horned head "Okay"

Adam walks home quietly.

Nabuni quiets too but she does say "Thank you for the ice cream and basketball. I DO Feel so much better thanks to you"

"Good."

a smile on her small face, but she doesn't say more.

And his parents welcome him home, ask him how his day was. and so forth. Another day in his life.

(End scene)